Drum or percussion instruments which are usually rhythmic in function and have tone or sound characteristics which are produced by a person or group of people, by striking or shaking the instrument(s). Tone is a physical property of music that is produced by regular vibrations of the air, such as those produced by singing or whistling. Tone's regular vibrations are unlike common noise that is produced by irregular vibrations of air like those caused by an explosion or breaking of a dinner plate. Musical tone has four properties: 1) pitch; 2) duration; 3) intensity and 4) quality. Pitch is the highness or lowness of the tonal sound. A higher pitch is caused by faster vibrations and a lower pitch is caused by slower vibrations. Human hearing is in the range of approximately 15 vibrations per second to about 20,000 vibrations per second. Duration is the length of time a tone is sustained. Intensity is the degree of loudness and softness of the instrument. Intensity is a basis of musical rhythm. Sounds which are quick in duration and vary in intensity can produce rhythm within a musical phrase. All musical tone has a characteristic quality. This quality enables an individual to distinguish the differences between different instruments, such as, for example, the differences between a flute, a piano and a drum. The quality of tone is also referred to as timbre, tone quality or tone color. These four properties give many instruments infinite sound possibilities in the musical field. Rhythm is the time element of music.
There are two groups of percussion instruments, a group of definite pitch instruments and a group of indefinite pitch instruments. The definite pitch instrument group includes, for example, the kettledrums or timpani and the marimba. Definite pitch instruments have pitches which are melodic and rhythmic in function. The indefinite pitch instrument group includes, for example, the snare drum, bass drum and cymbals. Indefinite pitch instruments usually are rhythmic in function. Different tones can be provided by providing different size drums.
Drumming in one form or another has been taking place for as long as anyone can remember. Primitive man would stamp on the ground. Later in history hollowed wood was struck with the hands, sticks or other objects. Eventually hollowed wood or a wooden shell was covered at one or two ends with an animal skin which was then used as the striking surface. More recent developments covered a wooden shell or metal shell with plastic drumming heads which are struck with a pair of drum sticks usually made of wood. A common percussion instrument, the snare drum, uses a shell where one end is covered with a plastic drum head or batter head, as it is called and the second end of the shell is covered with a snare head or thinner plastic head, with strands of material that are against the thinner head. This produces a sizzle like sound when the drum is struck. Another common percussion instrument, the tenor drum typically has a batter head attached at one or both ends of the drum shell. Each size tenor drum will produce its own pitch. The smaller the drum, the higher the vibrations and therefore the higher the pitch. The snare drum and tenor drum are popular drums for home use. However, these drums have disadvantages. They are difficult to transport because of their size and they have many fastening lugs which require a special tool for fastening and unfastening the drum heads. Also, the heads wear out and are expensive to replace.
While the prior technology used to develop, fabricate and utilize a drumming instrument works well in many situations, it is deficient in other situations. Snare drums, tenor drums and other popular percussion instruments performed in areas possessing proper acoustical properties can sound well and have a proper tonal color. These areas may have sound proofing material, as in a sound studio, or may be in the outdoors not close to any hard building walls or objects which the drum sounds can reverberate off of. Without these proper surroundings, the drums could sound much more noisy and annoying as opposed to tonal. In most average surroundings, such as in a typical school, neighborhood or home environment, having proper surroundings for producing good acoustical properties is not obtainable or can be very expensive for the average consumer to obtain. Electronic drumming equipment has volume and tone characteristic settings which can be more easily controlled, but the electronic equipment required, such as power supplies, electric drum pad, and amplifiers are expensive and occupies a large amount of space and is difficult to transport. Thus, popular, commonly used drums have disadvantages of expense, and poor tone when played in common environments such as homes and schools.
Vennola, U.S. Pat. No. 3,867,863 discloses a toy drum having an open-ended cylindrical shell of paper based material and a plastic drum head at each end. The paper construction of Vennola is not durable enough to stand up to rough playing and portability. Further, the plastic drum heads and cylindrical shape of Vennola's drum do not allow for stackability. Additionally, the drum's heads require specialty moldings which can be expensive to produce. The Vennola drum apparatus is not a drum set and cannot produce a variety of tones.
Green, U.S. Pat. No. 4,452,121 discloses a septacussion which has seven bongo drums fastened together with a series of block and bolt mechanisms which are not easily removed. The bongo drums do not stack for easy portability. Bongo drums do not have an integral head and the bongo drum head can be broken when hit with a drum stick. Thus, the bongo is not durable and is not easily collapsible and portable since it must be unbolted using tools.
There is a need for a drum which produces good tonal quality, is affordable, durable and stackable and easily transportable. There is also a need for a drum set which requires no tools to collapse.
Bearing in mind the problems and deficiencies of the prior art, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a drumming apparatus for producing a unique tone or sound, tone color or tone quality.
It is another object of the present invention to provide easy storage capability in a small area.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a more affordable instrument for consumers.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an instrument which is easy to carry.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an instrument which is easily portable.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an instrument which creates a variety of pitch characteristics.
A further object of the invention is to provide a durable instrument.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an instrument which does not require tuning.
Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification. The aforementioned objects and advantages are illustrative of the objects and advantages of the various embodiments of the present invention. One of ordinary skill in the art would realize that each particular object is unique and may not necessarily be achieved by a particular embodiment of the present invention. However, each object is achieved by at least one embodiment of the present invention.